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Curator's note: This post was originally authored by Joe Brockmeier.

It’s been a while since we’ve had an update on the Apache CloudStack
(incubating) 4.0 release, so let’s take a look at where we’re at.

One of the biggest blockers to the release has been making sure that
all of the licensing issues are addressed. As a Citrix-sponsored project
under the GPLv3, CloudStack had several dependencies that were shipped
with it that were compatible with the GPL. Some of the dependencies have
had to be dealt with in order to ensure that CloudStack could ship a
source tarball that’s compliant with the Apache release guidelines.

This also includes establishing the licensing (if any) of files that
you may not usually think about as having a license at all – e.g. configuration files. CloudStack ships with several configuration files for third-party programs like OpenSSH and rsyslog.
That means a lot of additional time that’s been spent crossing t’s and
dotting i’s that wasn’t factored into the original schedule.

Updated Schedule and Builds

To summarize, the 4.0 release has passed code freeze stage, and you can find nightly builds on jenkins.cloudstack.org. Note that these are not
releases, as they haven’t been voted on and should be considered
unofficial builds. But for folks who are interested in testing ahead of
Apache CloudStack 4.0, these may be useful.

The release is being tested by Citrix QA, and the plan is that the
test cycle should be complete by September 28th. After that, a RC1 will
be released for voting. If that passes, we’ll have a 4.0 release. Note
that the Apache release process involves two 72-hour voting periods plus
the time to prep the mirrors, etc.

Most of the licensing issues have been resolved, modulo one or two
configuration files. Those should be cleared in the next day or two.

The current legal blocker is around export issues, which is being worked on and we hope will be resolved very soon.

We also have some bugs/issues that need addressing, but those look
good and shouldn’t delay the release beyond resolving the legal issues.

There’s also still work for docs to be done, but that should also be doable by the time QA is finished.

If you’re interested in helping with the release, jump in! Discussion
about the release takes place on the cloudstack-dev mailing list (Warning: it’s a very high volume mailing list!), and if you find any bugs that need reporting go to our Jira instance and file a bug.

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